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According to a November 23, 2005 article in Frank Barnako's Internet Daily (MarketWatch), keyword costs have predictably risen in anticipation of the holiday buying season. According to analysis by Semphonic:

"The cost of buying keywords for search engine advertising rose 8% for kitchen, food and wine-related terms. Prices for apparel and accessory keywords rose by 10%."

Since many of the most heavily sought-out items on Christmas shopping lists will come out of bricks-and-mortar stores, it makes good sense for retailers to use all available tools to track back these purchases to their point of origin on the Web. Otherwise, some very expensive advertising will be done with limited accountability.

We've found that the data produced by MarketingSherpa is worth reading two or three times, if for no other reason than the value of reflection . . . which often surfaces new insights. The most recent, MarketingSherpa's 2nd Annual Search Marketing Survey, is no exception.

According to the editor, "3,271 marketers participated, making this the *biggest* SEM study respondent base ever. " And on the whole, it seemed like a really upbeat article, particularly if you are in the SEO or PPC business, where client spending projections are up significantly. According to the article:

So, you might ask, where are the results that have led to this big jump in projected spending? With few (4-5% SEO, 8-12% PPC) reporting any decrease in projected spending, something really good must be happening on the conversion front.

Not so. In fact, conversion stat comparisons between 2004 and 2005 do not look pretty.

What appears to be happening is this: competition is getting tougher, and you just have to spend more to stay in the game. And given the escalating costs in what is now an SEM "arms race," we can expect it to get tougher year after year.

Our perspective: it's a great time to be in the SEM business, if you are getting paid for (as opposed to paying for) these services.

Wish We'd Said It First

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.